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Oct. 17 --Federal employee unions and environmental
groups shifted their focus to upcoming budget negotiations after President
Barack Obama signed legislation to fund the government through Jan. 15 and end
the government shutdown.

The Environmental Protection Agency recalled
furloughed workers and began resuming normal activities Oct. 17 following a
16-day shutdown that suspended most agency activities.

The law signed by
the president also suspended the debt limit through Feb. 7, avoiding a default
on the federal government's debt obligations, and appointed a congressional
conference committee to resolve the differences between the House and Senate
budget resolutions (H. Con. Res. 25, S. Con. Res. 8).

The conference
committee has a deadline of Dec. 13 to report back on a final budget
outline.

The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum Oct. 17 announcing that the employees who were
furloughed may return to work.

McCarthy, Biden Greet Employees

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Vice President Joe Biden greeted
employees returning to work at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C. McCarthy
described the end of the shutdown as “a real celebration” for agency employees
who were eager to get back to work.

“We had about 94 percent of our
staff out, so that's a pretty big hardship for us,” McCarthy told
reporters.

The agency furloughed most of its workforce Oct. 1, including
most staff in the Office of Air and Radiation, the Office of Water and the
Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, limiting the agency's
operational capacity during the shutdown.

Long-Term Budget Deal

Federal employee unions welcomed the agreement to reopen the federal
government, which provides back pay for furloughed workers but expressed
concerns about the short-term nature of the deal.

J. David Cox Sr.,
national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in
an Oct. 17 statement that the short-term funding bill to reopen the government
is a “brief reprieve” for federal employees. AFGE represents 670,000 federal
employees, including employees at the EPA.

“We cannot accept another
government shutdown in just a few short weeks,” Cox said. “Federal workers and
the public they serve have suffered enough.”

William R. Dougan, national
president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, called on Congress
in an Oct. 16 statement to reach an agreement on a long-term budget that
provides certainty to federal employees, rather than relying on additional
short-term funding measures.

“This era of Congress manufacturing one
crisis after another must end,” Dougan said.

Optimistic About
Budget

Karen Kellen, president of AFGE Council 238, told Bloomberg BNA
Oct. 16 that she was more optimistic about the budget outlook for the EPA after
seeing that the agreement provided funding through Jan. 15.

Kellen said
she had feared Congress would agree to a very short-term funding bill to end
the shutdown.

AFGE Employees Council 238 is a collection of local unions
that represent EPA employees at national headquarters and the agency's regional
offices.

Kellen said the next step for Congress must be to reach a budget
deal that ends sequestration under the Budget Control Act of 2011. That law
calls for a second round of automatic discretionary spending cuts in January to
meet the fiscal 2014 spending cap of $967 billion, unless Congress passes
legislation to reduce spending or alter the cap.

Kellen said the
automatic discretionary spending cuts are “devastating” to the EPA and make it
more difficult for employees to do their jobs.

Frances Beinecke,
president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an Oct. 16 blog post in response to the end of the shutdown that
environmental advocates must prepare to defend environmental spending.

Beinecke said the funding agreement to reopen the government “puts off the
big fights,” including negotiations on EPA spending cuts and environmental
riders, for a few months.

'Draconian Cuts' Proposed

Beinecke
said House Republicans have proposed “draconian cuts” in environmental programs
and support continuing sequestration, which she said impairs the capabilities
of all federal agencies. The House Appropriations Committee proposed in July to
provide the EPA with $5.5 billion in discretionary funding in fiscal 2014, a
$2.8 billion, or 34 percent, cut compared to the fiscal 2013 enacted level
.

Beinecke said she expects Republicans to support additional cuts to
environmental programs in the upcoming budget talks.

Beinecke also
highlighted numerous environmental provisions sought by House Republicans in
their initial debt limit plan, before focus shifted to the defunding of health
care programs authorized under the Affordable Care Act.

House leadership
initially planned to include in a debt limit bill provisions that would approve
the Keystone XL pipeline, expand onshore and offshore drilling and prohibit the
EPA from issuing certain rules that are estimated to cost more than $1 billion
a year. House Republicans later shifted away from those demands in debt limit
and government funding negotiations.

Water Infrastructure Funding

Dan Hartnett, director of legislative affairs at the Association of
Metropolitan Water Agencies, told Bloomberg BNA in an Oct. 17 e-mail that
despite the funding agreement, it is a “very difficult budget environment” for
federal agencies, including the EPA.

Hartnett said he is hopeful that
the budget conference committee is able to meet spending targets without large
cuts to water infrastructure investment. The clean water and drinking water
state revolving funds, which provide funding for water infrastructure projects,
have been targeted for large reductions in recent years.

The House
Appropriations Committee proposed in July to fund the clean water SRF at a
level of $250 million in fiscal 2014, a cut of $1.2 billion compared to the
fiscal 2013 enacted level. The House proposed to cut the drinking water SRF to
$350 million, a reduction of about $550 million from the fiscal 2013 enacted
level.

The Senate Appropriations Committee proposed in August to
maintain funding for the clean water and drinking water state revolving funds
at fiscal 2013 levels.

NRDC Polling Results

A nationwide poll commissioned by the Natural Resources
Defense Council, released Oct. 17, found that 65 percent of Americans opposed
the suspension of EPA activities during the shutdown.

The poll found
that 65 percent of respondents opposed the shutdown's interference with the
EPA's development of standards limiting carbon pollution from power plants, and
71 percent opposed the shutdown preventing EPA inspectors from monitoring air
and water pollution.

David Goldston, director of government affairs at
NRDC, said during an Oct. 17 media call that the poll results should serve as a
“clear warning” to House Republicans in advance of scheduled budget
negotiations.

Goldston said the poll indicated that most Americans wanted
the government to reopen and most Americans support EPA operations.

The
poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, surveyed 825 Americans over the Oct.
11 weekend, prior to the end of the government shutdown.

Tom Jensen,
director of Public Policy Polling, told reporters the poll showed voters
weren't happy about the effects the shutdown had on EPA operations.

“Voters are not happy that the EPA was shut down, and they certainly won't
be happy with any future efforts to hinder its work,” Jensen said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Ambrosio in Washington
at pambrosio@bna.com

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